Justified & Ancient

They seem to be putting some serious equipment into it now, and it is being broadcast in the UK very soon after it has been broadcast in the US, they haven't even had time to change the narrator to the English one. Wonder if they have really found something this time?

Justified & Ancient

They seem to be troughing a lot of brass at it but when they
show whats going on they seem to jump quickly from thing
to thing, location to location, probably better for tv cutting
out the boring bits, still interesting to record .

Justified & Ancient

The TV company have $1,271,546 in film funding for the production of a 4th season.
thats just the TV on season 4 so what as been spent on this project so it total must be a vast sum.
The two brothers own a company called "Oak Island Tours"https://www.oakislandtours.ca/
But anyone digging there has to obtain a licencs from the goverment who get a cut of anything found
even though the island is privatly owned.

CyberPunk

As most of you know, Curse of Oak Island returned for its fourth season on Tuesday, and I still can’t bring myself to care about digging holes and brokering an end to the long-simmering feuds between old geezers who fight over who knows best about which hole to dig and how deep and for what reason. But despite my misgivings about what is, at heart, a program about old men hanging out and bonding over a futile but expensive task—the fringe history version of having a golf foursome—the premiere episode struggled a bit to keep things fresh after so many years of looking in vain for some undefined treasure. To find an exciting new angle, they returned to an old one, and recapitulated the first season finale of America Unearthed, which visited the same New Ross location in search of the same artifact, the Ark of the Covenant.

As regular readers will recall, according to a Facebook broadcast this fall, Scott F. Wolter of America Unearthed and J. Hutton Pulitzer, formerly of Curse of Oak Island, planned to announce their belief that they knew the burial site of the Ark of the Covenant near Oak Island. It seems Curse stole their thunder by remaking Wolter’s first excursion in search of the Ark near Oak Island. Indeed, after the episode aired, J. Hutton Pulitzer took to Facebook to announce that (a) many things on Curse of Oak Island are “changed” or “enhanced,” (b) it was the “best” and most “absolutely amazing” episode ever produced by the “brilliant” Kevin Burns, and (c) Pulitzer would no longer be making public criticisms of the show because he does not want conservatives to have to deal with any more negativity in the wake of all the anti-Trump hatred that he said has taken too much of an “emotional toll” on him and others of his political bent:

In short, I do not want to detract from your entertainment. Right now, we all need to ESCAPE and BE ENTERTAINED. Now, maybe more than any time in history before - we need to be entertained and distracted. When all week you will see toxic and deplorable news targeted at our new President and trying to make him and his elected staff look like haters and racists, you NEED, better yet, you DESERVE, that one or two hours of entertaining escape every week.

Less than 2m away

Well, I'm 4 episodes in to Season 4 and they're going for it big time. They've brought in 2 huge cranes and are going to bore two holes, encased in steel, to see what is down at the money pit location. This should provide the producers with at least 10 episodes worth of cliffhangers and teasers.

I'm still enjoying the show but if one more person says "Let's call it a day" just when they're in the middle of finding out something exciting, then I will travel to Oak Island myself and fulfil the prophecy of "one more having to die" before the treasue is unearthed!

Gone But Not Forgotten

Well, I'm 4 episodes in to Season 4 and they're going for it big time. They've brought in 2 huge cranes and are going to bore two holes, encased in steel, to see what is down at the money pit location.

Having worked on oil rigs, I'm familiar with the process of drilling deep holes and encasing them in steel tubes. But the process is essentially destructive - the fragments of rock are carried to the surface by the drilling mud, where they are examined by geologists to see what kinds of strata are down there. But what if they encounter a crock of gold? The gold would be ground up by the diamond crusted drill bits (diamond is hard, gold is very soft), and by the time the cuttings reach surface and are identified, the hoard could be mostly destroyed! (When a drill hits softer strata, it's remarkable how fast it can descend!)

Assuming this whole thing is not total fiction, I hope they've got an appropriate technology figured out!

Justified & Ancient

I'm still enjoying the show but if one more person says "Let's call it a day" just when they're in the middle of finding out something exciting, then I will travel to Oak Island myself and fulfil the prophecy of "one more having to die" before the treasue is unearthed!

But what if they encounter a crock of gold? The gold would be ground up by the diamond crusted drill bits (diamond is hard, gold is very soft), and by the time the cuttings reach surface and are identified, the hoard could be mostly destroyed! (When a drill hits softer strata, it's remarkable how fast it can descend!)

What they have done is bore a tiny hole whereupon they have located a cavity deep underground. They then put the casings down to within a couple of feet of that cavity then drill down the next couple of feet to reach the cavity. It seems relatively non-destructive.

In one case, they were trying to find what they thought was a vault encased in wood and then concrete. In that case, they drilled down till they were touching the wood then used a hammer grab to nip out bits to examine.

Justified & Ancient

Well there is another new series just started. Even though the last two were the last ones. This time they are going to pepper the money pit area with bore holes to try and pinpoint its location. We are still glued to the screen, despite everything. It is a little like a real life version of Detectorists where a ton of gold lies just within reach but they keep just finding ring pulls. You could probably invent a drinking game where you take a drink every time you find yourself shouting "ringpull" at the screen. Finishing the drink occurs whenever Dave Blankenship shouts "we've got wood!"

Sadly, in the intervening time since the previous series, Drake Tester has died. Nothing to do with the pit but complications following an epileptic fit. He was only 16.

Fresh Blood

Well there is another new series just started. Even though the last two were the last ones. This time they are going to pepper the money pit area with bore holes to try and pinpoint its location. We are still glued to the screen, despite everything. It is a little like a real life version of Detectorists where a ton of gold lies just within reach but they keep just finding ring pulls. You could probably invent a drinking game where you take a drink every time you find yourself shouting "ringpull" at the screen. Finishing the drink occurs whenever Dave Blankenship shouts "we've got wood!"

Sadly, in the intervening time since the previous series, Drake Tester has died. Nothing to do with the pit but complications following an epileptic fit. He was only 16.

The "peppering with holes" has been done repeatedly in the past. When I was on the island in 2009 (I was the "guest sceptic" at a fundraising/enthusiast event) there were dozens of capped-off pipes surrounded by crushed black stone. We were told these were boreholes sunk all the way to the basalt bedrock (the black stone) in an effort to locate likely new places to dig. That poor island has more holes in it than a Swiss cheese.

I've been writing about the MP "mystery" for nearly two decades now. It was bunk then, and it's bunk now. The producers are just milking the story for all it's worth and will never find anything of consequence 'cos there's nothing there to begin with!

Justified & Ancient

The "peppering with holes" has been done repeatedly in the past. When I was on the island in 2009 (I was the "guest sceptic" at a fundraising/enthusiast event) there were dozens of capped-off pipes surrounded by crushed black stone. We were told these were boreholes sunk all the way to the basalt bedrock (the black stone) in an effort to locate likely new places to dig. That poor island has more holes in it than a Swiss cheese.

I've been writing about the MP "mystery" for nearly two decades now. It was bunk then, and it's bunk now. The producers are just milking the story for all it's worth and will never find anything of consequence 'cos there's nothing there to begin with!

Fresh Blood

Less than 2m away

Rick and Marty are footing the bill and so I suspect they would pull the plug if it was just the production tean trying to get them to continue. They obviously think there is something there. I find it intriguing that they have discovered coins and so forth on the island which do not match known time frames and inhabitations.

Justified & Ancient

Rick and Marty are footing the bill and so I suspect they would pull the plug if it was just the production tean trying to get them to continue. They obviously think there is something there. I find it intriguing that they have discovered coins and so forth on the island which do not match known time frames and inhabitations.

Yes, there is no way the production team can be footing the cost. There is also no way the island tours can be paying for it either. Those things can only be recouping a small amount of the money. The drilling rigs, divers and equipment must be costing millions.

I find the coins, nails and so on interesting too. There is obviously some interesting archaeology there. It would be nice if they got a proper archaeologist to investigate Samuel Ball's lot and the one next to it for example.

I am also interesting in Smith's Cove and the old coconut fibre they keep finding there. Where did it come from? Very intriguing. (I haven't finished reading your website yet @djoltes so if the answer is there I will get to it in due course)

Fresh Blood

Yes, there is no way the production team can be footing the cost. There is also no way the island tours can be paying for it either. Those things can only be recouping a small amount of the money. The drilling rigs, divers and equipment must be costing millions.

I find the coins, nails and so on interesting too. There is obviously some interesting archaeology there. It would be nice if they got a proper archaeologist to investigate Samuel Ball's lot and the one next to it for example.

I am also interesting in Smith's Cove and the old coconut fibre they keep finding there. Where did it come from? Very intriguing. (I haven't finished reading your website yet @djoltes so if the answer is there I will get to it in due course)

I've been advocating for at least one real archaeological dig on the island for years now. Many people have contacted me to ask what I'd do were I in charge, and that's been my answer. No one has ever bothered; instead they bring in even more heavy equipment and ruin even more of the remaining context, while producing nothing at all of value. I would have loved to see a real excavation of the "slipway" at the South cove, but instead everything was hacked out of the ground and all the context was destroyed in the process. It's criminal, really.

The coconut fibres most likely have one of two easy answers. One is that the island is known to have been used by wreckers (pirates who looted shipwrecks) and other local pirates for years, and coconut was often used as dunnage for cargo. So the debris on Smith's Cove could just be the remnants of that material. Another is based on a book written by Millie Evans decades ago, where she advocated for the island as the site of a fish processing station (the coconut could have been part of a drying field on the shoreline).

As for the coins and other items found, they're generally irrelevant unless found in some identifiable context (yet another reason for decent archaeology). Without knowing when they were dropped, they're useless in establishing a timeline. And as I've pointed out for a long time now, if the MP story of a 200' deep pit was true, where's all the evidence? By rights, they should have found a massive debris field consisting of remnants of trees chopped for hoardings, along with a huge pile of sawdust, plus hundreds of broken/lost tools and the remains of a huge clearing where hundreds of cubic yards of soil was piled up (it had to go somewhere). The fact that *none* of this appears in the legend is indicative of the story being wholly fictional. If anything happened, it was only at the surface.

Justified & Ancient

I would have loved to see a real excavation of the "slipway" at the South cove, but instead everything was hacked out of the ground and all the context was destroyed in the process. It's criminal, really.

Yes, it doesn't seem possible to find any useful information any more as everything has been so churned about. A real shame. The Ball plot would still be worth salvaging as it is far away from dig sites though I am not holding my breath that it will be done properly.

The coconut fibres most likely have one of two easy answers. One is that the island is known to have been used by wreckers (pirates who looted shipwrecks) and other local pirates for years, and coconut was often used as dunnage for cargo. So the debris on Smith's Cove could just be the remnants of that material. Another is based on a book written by Millie Evans decades ago, where she advocated for the island as the site of a fish processing station (the coconut could have been part of a drying field on the shoreline).

The ridiculousness of the depth of the pit has always puzzled me I must admit! Given how difficult it has been for anyone excavating it, from the 18 mumbles to the modern day, why would anyone have ever gone to such trouble? I suppose that is why the ostentatiousness of the supposed treasure has grown in relation to the difficulty in finding it.

Wide-eyed vulpine rambler

I shall have to read @djoltes site when I get the chance. This legend has fascinated me greatly since I first read about it as a child, and I must admit to serious doubts regarding its veracity. There's so little concrete data to back up the assertions. The romantic in me certainly wants to believe, though.

Regardless, it's a heck of a concept. What would be so precious that someone would, in essence, rig an entire island to protect it, to an extent that rendered recovery all but impossible? And if you were so keen on protecting this item or items, why then leave clues to its presence and nature? That's a huge dichotomy I can't begin to reconcile, but boy if it isn't thought-provoking.

Fresh Blood

Regardless, it's a heck of a concept. What would be so precious that someone would, in essence, rig an entire island to protect it, to an extent that rendered recovery all but impossible? And if you were so keen on protecting this item or items, why then leave clues to its presence and nature? That's a huge dichotomy I can't begin to reconcile, but boy if it isn't thought-provoking.

That's exactly right -- if these people went to all the bother of hiding some vast treasure down there, why did they make the inexcusable error of leaving a surface clue like the depression and pulley (or branch with burn marks in)? It makes zero sense, as does most of the original tale.

Some years ago I was guest sceptic (!) at a Money Pit event, and one of the major proponents of the legend told me, almost verbatim, that he and others now completely dismiss any so-called "history" around the island prior to the 1950s as too unreliable. I nearly had a cardiac arrest at that, because most of the believer set hold onto the original "three boys on an adventure" tale even though it's largely based on a work of fiction called The Treasure of the Seas, written in the 1870s, that loosely uses the MP mystery as its foundation.

I also have evidence (it's on my site, look for the John Brown Report) that digging stopped in the 1860s following statements by the company running the auger drill. Most books say the drilling produced a noise like "metal in pieces" which was always assumed to be gold coins, but the drilling company owner said this was ridiculous and that it was gravel, because that's what was coming out of the hole. He also said he had a habit of flipping a coin into the drill tube, because he was guaranteed it would come up again after hitting the drill bit. Thus, the idea that they'd struck a treasure chest was ludicrous because money would have been pouring out of the hole.

He also said that at the 140' or so level they hit what were obviously untouched soils, so the idea that something lies below 200' is also rubbish. But they'll keep digging, because it keeps the tale alive and faces on the telly.